The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-11-30
nursery over which Gods star Of peace never

oH tne prairie Dy ngntlnB uIe Will LII Q, ouS
you cannot, with the fire Of your own dlspo-
sition, put out the fire Of child's disposition.
Yet we may rush to the other extreme,
and use toward our children too great leni-
ency, The surgeon is not unkind because,
notwithstanding the resistance of his patient,
he goes straight on, with firm hand and un-
faltering heart, totake of the gangre1e; Nor
because, notwithstanding all violent
remonstrances on the part Of the
child, he with the frmest discipline
advances to the cutting of of its
evil inclinations. The Bible says: "Chasten
thy son while there is hope, and let not thy
soul spare for his crying" Childish rage
unchecked will, after awhile, become hurri-
cane. Childish petulance will grow up into
misanthropy. Childish rebellion will develop
! into the lawlessness Of riot and seiition. II
you would ruin the child. dance to his
every caprice and stuff him with con-
fectionery. Before you are aware of 1t
that boy Of ten years will go down
| the street, cigar in his mouth and ready on
any corner with his comrades to compare
| lows the child to grow up without ever hav-
ing learned the great duty Of obedience and
submission has prepared cup of burning
gall for his own lips and appalling destruc-
tion for his descendant Remember Eli and
his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. =.
A second error prevalent in the training OF
children is the laying out of a theory an fol-
disposition. In every family you will find
striking differences of temperament. This
child Is too timid and that too bold; this
too miserly, and that too wasteful; this too
inactive, and that too bosterous. Now, the
farmer who should plant corn and wheat and
turnips in just the slme way, then
put them through one hopper and grind them
in the same MILL would not be so much of a
fool as ,he parents who should attempt to
discipline and educate al their children in the
same manner. 1t needs skillful hand to ad-
Just these checks and balances The rigidity
Of government which is necessary to hold in
this impetuous nature would utterly crush
that flexible disposition, while the gentle
reproof that would suffice for the latter would,
when used on the former, be like attempting TO
hold champing Bucephalus with reins of gos-
samer. God gives us in the disposition OF each
child hint as to how we ought to train him,
and, as God in the mental structures Of our
children indicates what mode Of training is
the best, He indicates in their disposition
ther future occupation. Do not write down
that child as dull because it may not be as
brilliant as your other children, or as those
of your neighbor. Some of the mightiest
men and women Of the centuries had stupid
childhood Thomas A1uinas was called at
school "the dumb OK" but afterward demon.
strated his sanctifie1 genius and was called
''the angel of the schools" and "the eagle of
Brittany" Kindness and patience with
child will conquer almost anything, and they
are virtues so Christianlike that they are in
spring to look at. John Wesley's kiss Of
child on the pulpit stairs turned Matthias
Joyce from pro6igate into flaming evan
gel.
The third error prevalent in the training
- oI,,l 30 {ba 1al davo1nnn1ant
either the physical, intellectual or moral ma
ture at the expense of the others. Those, for
instance, greatly mistake who, while they are
faithful in the intellectual and moral culture
of children, forget the physical The bright
eyes half auenched by night study, the
cramped chest that comes from too much
bending over school desks, the weak side result
ing from sedentarineSs Of habit, pale cheeks
and the gaunt bodies Of multitudes OF chill
dred attest that physical development; does
not always go along with intellectual and
moral How do you suppose all those treas
ures of knowledge the child gets, will look
/ in shattered casket3 And how much will you
give for the wealthiest cargo when it is put
into leaky shipl How can that bright,
sharp blade Of child's attainments be
welded without any hands! What are
brains worth without shoulders to carry
theml What is child with magnificent
mind but an exhausted bodya Better that
young man Of twenty-one 60 forth into the
world without knowing A from If ne have
health of body and energy to push his way
through the world. than at twentY-one to
enter upon active life, his head stuffed with
Socrates and Herodotus. and Bacon, and La
Place, but no physical force to sustain him
in the shock Of earthly conflicts. From this
infinite blunder of parents how many have
come out in life with genius that could
have piled Ossa upon Pelion and
mounted upon them to scale the
heavens, and yet have laid down
fore a mole-hill They who might have
thrilled senates and marshaled armies and
startled the world with the shock of their
scientific batteries, have passed their lives in
picking up prescriptions for indigestion.
They owned all the thunderbolts of Jupiter,
but could not get out of their rocking chair
to use them. George Washington in early life
was poor speller, and spelled hat h-a -double-t
and ream Of paper he spelled "rheam," but
he knew enough to spell out theindependence
of this country from foreign oppression. The
knowledge Of the schools is important, but
there are other things quite as important
Just as great Is the wrong done when the
mind is cultivated and the heart neglected.
The youth of this day are seldom denied any
scholarly attainments. Our schools and
seminaries are ever growing in efficiency,
and the students are conducted through all
the realms of philosophy, and art, and
language, and mathematics. The most
hereditary obtuseness gives way before
the onslaught Of adroit instructors.
But there is a development of
infinite importance which mathematics and
the dead languages cannot affect. Ihe more
mental power the more capacity for evil un-
less coupled with religious restraint. You
discover what terrible power for evil unsanc.
titled genius possesses when you see Scaliger
with his scathing denunciationS assaulting the
best men of his time, and Blount
and Spinoza and Bolingbroke lead
ing their hosts Of followers into
the all-consuming fires Of skepticism and in
fidelity. Whether knowledge is mighty
good or an unmitigated evil depends entirely
! upon which course it takes The river roll
ing on between round banks makes all the
valley laugh with golden wheat and rank
grass, and catching hold ths wheel of mill
and factory, whirls it with great industries.
But, breaking away from restraints
and dashing over banks in red wrath,
it washes away harvests from their
moorings and makes the valleys shrek with
! the catastrophe. Fire in the furnace heats
the house or drives the steamer; but, uncon-
trolled, warehouses 60 down in awful crash
before it, and in few hours half city will
lie in black ruin, walls and towers and
churches and monuments. You must accom-
pany the education Of the intellect with the
education of the heart, or you are rousing
up within your child an energy which will be
blasting and terrific Better wicked Ounce
than wicked philosopher.
The fourth error often committed in the
training Of children is the SUPPRESSION Of child
ish sportfuness. The most triumphant death
Of any child that ever saw was that of SEQ
vile Haynes McCollum. A few days before
that he was at my house in Syracuse, and he